Sell America. Buy into emerging-market chaos instead

If you want to invest in stock markets, you’d be better off with the chaos of cheaper emerging markets than the seeming calm of the US, says Merryn Somerset Webb.

If you are the type who likes to have something financial to worry about, I think it is fair to say that August has been good to you.

There has been the market's irritable acceptance that China both has a major debt problem and is no longer to be relied on for growth. There has been the stunning collapse of some emerging markets currencies (the Indian rupee had its worst day against the dollar in 18 years last week). There have been the falls across the board in emerging equity and bond markets as well.

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Merryn Somerset Webb

Merryn Somerset Webb started her career in Tokyo at public broadcaster NHK before becoming a Japanese equity broker at what was then Warburgs. She went on to work at SBC and UBS without moving from her desk in Kamiyacho (it was the age of mergers).

After five years in Japan she returned to work in the UK at Paribas. This soon became BNP Paribas. Again, no desk move was required. On leaving the City, Merryn helped The Week magazine with its City pages before becoming the launch editor of MoneyWeek in 2000 and taking on columns first in the Sunday Times and then in 2009 in the Financial Times

Twenty years on, MoneyWeek is the best-selling financial magazine in the UK. Merryn was its Editor in Chief until 2022. She is now a senior columnist at Bloomberg and host of the Merryn Talks Money podcast -  but still writes for Moneyweek monthly. 

Merryn is also is a non executive director of two investment trusts – BlackRock Throgmorton, and the Murray Income Investment Trust.